


Short Circuit

by Crowsister



Series: Meddling Metas [4]
Category: DCU (Comics), Marvel (Comics)
Genre: Drabble, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-01
Updated: 2019-02-01
Packaged: 2019-10-20 04:33:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 525
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17615561
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Crowsister/pseuds/Crowsister
Summary: This and Lost to the Lethe are my "writing exercises while adjusting to this weird manic energy from anti-depressants" things, so yeah, have fun!I loved this scene from session so much that I wanted to expand on it (and be able to experience it without listening to myself absolutely freak out and throw a heat-pad across my room). All dialogue is from session, I added Ada's thought processes and a touch of body language.EDIT: Minor punctuation fixes and context. The "Italy Protocol" mentioned here is a policy Ada used to keep: to quote Ada from a letter she wrote to Dick Greyson, "The idea of someone sincerely flirting with me (Watt damn it, the idea of someone even being interested in me that way) was like the idea of going to Italy: you know it’s there, and no doubt it’s very interesting, and some people went there (and live there), but I thought I never would. I'd spend my entire life without going to Italy, but it wouldn't matter, because there was all the rest of the world to visit. That was the Italy protocol." It's a narrative nod to His Dark Materials, specifically Amber Spyglass.





	Short Circuit

**Author's Note:**

> This and Lost to the Lethe are my "writing exercises while adjusting to this weird manic energy from anti-depressants" things, so yeah, have fun!
> 
> I loved this scene from session so much that I wanted to expand on it (and be able to experience it without listening to myself absolutely freak out and throw a heat-pad across my room). All dialogue is from session, I added Ada's thought processes and a touch of body language.
> 
> EDIT: Minor punctuation fixes and context. The "Italy Protocol" mentioned here is a policy Ada used to keep: to quote Ada from a letter she wrote to Dick Greyson, "The idea of someone sincerely flirting with me (Watt damn it, the idea of someone even being interested in me that way) was like the idea of going to Italy: you know it’s there, and no doubt it’s very interesting, and some people went there (and live there), but I thought I never would. I'd spend my entire life without going to Italy, but it wouldn't matter, because there was all the rest of the world to visit. That was the Italy protocol." It's a narrative nod to His Dark Materials, specifically Amber Spyglass.

Ada had to stop herself from trying to find Aaron’s hand to hold in the back of Henry’s car. Everything was all...reverted, but different and they were strangers in a strange land and fuck, she couldn’t be blamed for just wanting to hold her older brother’s hand, could she? Not as she sat in the backseat of Henry’s car, with him _acting_ like he was her dad, like he _cared_ , like he wasn’t some kind of terrorist from a city on the moon.

They pulled up to Gotham Academy, back to where old wounds stung and her old (bad, terrible, misguided) instincts were forged. Henry let them out and Aaron got out first. She scrambled after him, not looking back as Henry drove away.

Ada inhaled sharply as familiar voices started to jeer at her. Aaron was tuning it all out, focused on the real priority of surviving in this strange new reality, but it was too surreal for her to do that herself. It felt like her mind was a skittish horse, rearing back at its own shadow. Irrational, she wasn’t even processing _who_ was throwing out the remarks (the faces around her, outside of Aaron, were a blur almost in the fog of confusion. Fuck, the bullies didn’t matter, there was more at stake, this doesn’t _matter,_ Adalynn). Her thought process stopped abruptly, hearing a more familiar voice.

Armando’s voice. “Hey, yeah. That’s enough of that. How ‘bout you fuckoff before I knock you down?”

She turned toward the voice. Aaron muttered something below his breath, but she didn’t process it as Armando walked forward and put an arm around her shoulders. A bit of tension in her shoulders slowly seeped out at the contact (fuck, how touch-starved _was_ she?) and she looked up at him. It...it looked like Armando, at least (the dark brown skin...the black, short, fluffy hair...the dark amber eyes). Why was he here? Why in Gotham? For what purpose-

He leaned in and kissed her cheek, flashes of memories hitting her. In this timeline, Armando...Armando had asked her out, late last year. He was the one that broke Italy Protocol here, not Dick. He...he took her on a couple nice dates and- that was all that hit her in those flashes and she internally cursed, wanting to see _more,_ wanting to _know_ more. Ada realized that she had relaxed into him (seriously, what was this? The lingering instincts of her other self?), but didn’t move away.

“You really can’t let those assholes get to you,” Armando replied.

“Trying. Y’know, it’s a little shaky.” Understatement of the year, Ada.

But he just...he just gently squeezed her shoulder and nodded. “Yeah, I know. See you at lunch.”

“See you at lunch,” she replied, following the well-learned instinct of just _do_ -ing.

Armando left and the minute his back was turned, Ada’s ears flushed bright red. She turned to Aaron and sputtered quietly, “D’you- duh-deh-dih-” She squeaked.

Aaron grumbled, almost inaudible in the hustle and bustle around them, “So she’s playing matchmaker as well as God.”

Oh. Right. Still all of _that_ to deal with.


End file.
